


such a lot of world to see

by calcum



Category: Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare
Genre: AU, Benvolio loved Romeo, F/M, Juliet lives, Juliet makes choices for herself, M/M, Romeo still dies, Unrequited Love, i'm supposed to be doing nanowrimo but i wrote this instead, this took me two hours and idk how i feel about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-04-30 10:23:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5160248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calcum/pseuds/calcum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Let’s tell a story where the Friar does not leave Juliet alone in the Capulet tomb with her husband’s body laying across her lap. A story where Juliet does not reach for Romeo’s bloody dagger but instead she reaches for his hand and holds it like it is the only thing keeping her alive. She tangles her free hand into the golden locks on top of his head to keep her shaking hands steady. Juliet Capulet does not have her blood seep into Romeo’s body but rather has tears roll down her cheeks onto her husband’s head.<br/>This is not a fairytale. Her tears do not have any magical powers that will bring her true love back to life. She is just a child that fell in love with the first boy that loved her. They will say it was a story of lust and it was a tragedy waiting to happen and that it wasn’t real. Juliet will look at them and say ‘it feels pretty damn real’ and they will close their mouths very quickly.</p><p>OR</p><p>What if Juliet walked out of her tomb alive with the taste of Romeo's final kiss forever on her lips.</p>
            </blockquote>





	such a lot of world to see

**Author's Note:**

> I re-read Romeo and Juliet instead of writing for nano and I wrote this instead of writing for nano (it seems I'm just procrastinating on nano). I'm really obsessed with the idea of Juliet saving herself and continuing on with life after Romeo so this happened. But honestly, I have no idea what this is so I'm sorry.

Juliet wakes up expecting Romeo to be standing there to take her away so they can be together forever, but instead, he is slumped over the edge of her casket still warm. Paris is half on top of her and she can feel his blood seeping into her white burial dress but she finds she doesn’t care. The Friar is standing in front of her, his eyes are glistening but he doesn’t say anything.

Let’s tell a story where the Friar does not leave Juliet alone in the Capulet tomb with her husband’s body laying across her lap. A story where Juliet does not reach for Romeo’s bloody dagger but instead she reaches for his hand and holds it like it is the only thing keeping her alive. She tangles her free hand into the golden locks on top of his head to keep her shaking hands steady. Juliet Capulet does not have her blood seep into Romeo’s body but rather has tears roll down her cheeks onto her husband’s head. 

This is not a fairytale. Her tears do not have any magical powers that will bring her true love back to life. She is just a child that fell in love with the first boy that loved her. They will say it was a story of lust and it was a tragedy waiting to happen and that it wasn’t real. Juliet will look at them and say ‘it feels pretty damn real’ and they will close their mouths very quickly.

In this story, when Lady Capulet enters her family’s tomb, she will not find her daughter dead again and she will not have to hug her child’s chilling body for a second time. Lady Capulet will find her daughter pale but alive, and when she hugs Juliet, she will feel warmth and her daughter will be alive and breathing and not dead. (Lady Capulet will cry harder in this story than in the alternative.) Juliet will look over her mother’s shoulder and see the Nurse clinging onto the Prince. The Friar, in this tale, does not look on the tangled bodies of Romeo and Juliet, but instead watches as an alive Juliet curls herself around the body of Romeo. (This will cause Friar Lawrence to go back to his cell, pray God to forgive him for everything, and finally stick a dagger into his chest) (a life for a life) (balance must be restored in the universe) Juliet watches her father shake hands with Montague and she grows angry. Angry that Romeo must die for their two families to see reason. 

Juliet walks through the streets Verona that night with her family with Paris’ blood staining on her dress and the taste of poison from Romeo’s final kiss forever on her lips. In this version, Juliet will go out onto her balcony and she will not call out Romeo’s name but she will listen for the rustling of the vines leading up to her balcony and she will not let the tears fall when she turns back into her room when the sun peaks in the horizon.

For her fourteenth birthday, only a few short weeks after she woke up in her tomb, her father invites some of the Montague family for dinner. There will be no party for there will be no Romeo to fall in love with again. Romeo’s father and cousin, Benvolio, come that night. Benvolio looks the same as she does: on the verge of death. She remembers that he lost his two best friends and his aunt. He is the only one Juliet manages to smile at and his lips twitch in response. She suffers through dinner by swirling her food around her plate with her fork. As the plates are being cleared, Lady Capulet looks pointedly at Juliet’s plate and opens her mouth to say something before Juliet cuts her off. “May I be excused to walk the gardens?”

“It is dark and you are without an escort.” Her mother takes a sip of her wine.

Benvolio stands from his seat and all eyes go to him, “I will accompany the fair Juliet if you should allow it.”

Her father, filled with a few too many drinks, waves them off and Juliet turns and all but runs out of the dining hall. Benvolio walks at a slower pace behind her and doesn’t say anything. She pushes open the doors that lead to the garden below her balcony and she sits on the stone steps, Romeo’s cousin besides her. She can feel his warmth despite the distance between them and if Juliet closes her eyes, she can make herself believe this is another life where it is her husband besides her. The illusion is gone as soon as she opens her eyes and sees black hair instead of golden strands and a pale face in place of sun-kissed skin. Juliet watches Benvolio as he looks out on the garden.

“Did he love me?”

His dark eyes turn to her and they stare at each other for an extended amount of time. He doesn’t answer her question.

“Did you love him?”

“I think I always will.”

Benvolio nods and stares at her for a little longer, “I think he loved you.”

Juliet nods and that is enough reassurance for her. Benvolio knew her husband better and longer than she knew him. They sit in silence and watch each other’s faces. Her brows furrow and her lips downturn slightly, “What was he like? Thinking about it, I feel like I didn’t know him at all.”

“You don’t.” Benvolio doesn’t say it like it’s her fault, he says it like it is. Romeo and Juliet knew each other for a few chaos filled days. They loved what they could have been for they did not fully know each other. Benvolio stands and offers his hand to her, “Let’s walk and I’ll tell you about Romeo.” She grabs his hand and follows him into her garden. She does not release his warm hand.

Benvolio tells how Romeo fell in love with every girl that gave him a second glance. He tells the story of the fight between Romeo and Mercutio when they first met and Romeo walked out of that with a scar underneath his right eye, a smile on his face, and his arm around his new friend Mercutio. Juliet watches Benvolio’s face as he tells these stories about Romeo. She recognizes the soft smile and the look of home that takes over his face as a look that comes over her when she was with Romeo himself all those weeks ago. 

“You love him.”

He stops in the middle of telling about Romeo running away for three days and looks at Juliet. There is a soft smile on Juliet’s face and Benvolio stares at her and repeats her words from earlier. “I think I always will.” He smiles at her before jumping back into his story.

Months go by and they see each other almost everyday. The two heart-broken teens learn to love each other. They have a different love than the love they once had with Romeo. Loving Romeo was like loving fire. The love was fast and unexpected and left you cold and burnt when the fire died out. Benvolio and Juliet found remnants of Romeo’s fire in each other and they became close to as they tried to fill the void Romeo left.

Similar to the original story, Juliet never marries again. It is a choice she makes for herself once again, but this time it is on the one-year anniversary of her marriage to Romeo when Benvolio asks if she would marry him. She is a year older than she once was and she is smarter. She knows love is fleeting and that decisions cannot be based off love for it is unreliable. Juliet smiles at Benvolio, grabs one of his hands with her, and tangles her other hand in his black locks. She kisses him lightly on the lips and when he licks his own lips, Benvolio swears he can taste the poison.

“I will not marry again, but I will accompany you to the ends of the earth.” And they do just that. 

Romeo has been dead for exactly one year when Juliet throws her case of belongings over her balcony down to Benvolio and climbs down the same vines Romeo climbed up all that time ago to meet his love. Juliet is doing the same as she would have done when she and Romeo were supposed to run away together. She hears the rusting of vines as she climbs down, so she stops, closes her eyes, and listens and remembers. When she reaches the bottom, she reaches for Benvolio’s hand and picks up her case and they are off. 

Before they leave Verona forever, they enter Capulet’s tomb and she says goodbye to her cousin, Tybalt, and traces her date of death on her tomb from a year previous. Benvolio pulls her away and he brings her to Mercutio’s grave and says nothing. In silence, they walk slowly to Romeo’s final resting place in Montague’s tomb. Juliet goes up and puts her hand on the cool stone. “Thank you,” she says first “I love you” secondly because it’s true.

Benvolio puts his hand over hers on the stone and it feels like Romeo and Benvolio have put her small hand between their own. Romeo’s hands were always cold and Benvolio’s hands are always warm.

They walk out of the gates of Verona hand-in-hand towards Mantua, the same way Romeo did. But they are not alone. They will never be left alone again.

Juliet is not left to rot in a tomb from a broken heart (literally and metaphorically) and Benvolio is not left in Verona to cope with his sufferings alone. They have found solace in each other and a love that may not even be real for they are children who know nothing of love except for loving the same fire found in the same boy. They will walk hand-in-hand to the end of the earth with their inheritance they took early to fund their life. They go past Mantua and any city that comes after until they have left Italy all together. 

Her hand is steady with Benvolio’s wrapped around it and the days when she can’t stop shaking, she tangles her other hand into his hair and closes her eyes and remembers Romeo before and after his untimely death. Benvolio falters and they lay in a bed that is not theirs and he lays his ear upon her breast and listens to her heart beat steadily. Most days, though, Juliet smiles at the strangers that pass them and they do not say her love story is all lust and a tragedy waiting to happen and that it wasn’t real because they do not know. Verona is far behind them and no one knows of Romeo Montague.

Romeo does not precede Juliet anymore in this story. She made her own choice in that tomb. In both stories, there is a boy that is tied to her name but that boy does not define her. Romeo and Juliet was a tragedy from love. Juliet and Benvolio was love from a tragedy.


End file.
